What are your favorite troops?
 

I have been playing this game for a few weeks and love it. I was wondering what you all feel are the Best and the worst units to take. Which units are MUST HAVE and which are a flop (not worth the level)?

Also, which Dragons do you prefer and why?

Please provide any feedback.

Thanks!

hi everbody.

As for me,in the beginning of the game i prefer swordmens because they have physical resistance.

in the middle of the game i prefer sea dogs because they have multiattack property.

And during most of game i prefer king snakes because they have retaliation property and good speed.

And i prefer red dragons because they have line attack.

and i think best creature is human knights.Because they have good physical and fire resistance,good helath,line attack ability, and with warrior you can descrease their leadership...thanks

Royal Snake is definitely the best unit in the game :-P and they are even more deadly when you have the frog wife. If you are lucky enough to get some fire spiders early on, they and the royal snakes will stomp anything standing in front of them :roll: (especially with the Jade belt which gives bonus for spider). RS is a must have for me till I find other good combo in late game. One more unit that is vital in my army is Evil Beholder, its mind control and sleep ability is fantastic for crowd control.

Strangely enough in the snake and spider family, only those 2 I list are excellent , the rest of them are either just too slow (snakes) or too weak (spiders) and not worth using. I also dislike the Ent (high lv elf unit) because of their -100% to fire, slow and limited range ability. The rest of the units have their uses, you just gotta find the right way (and equipments) to maximize their potential.

Black dragon is the best of all, I dont use the others often because when they fight other units that has much more LDR they suffer heavy casualties and become weaken fast.

Im not too far in but

Royal snakes, guardsman, swordsman, i use tons of thorn hunters because they are cheap and do good damage. Been using lots of Ancient bears, polar bears.

They also are immune to magic meaning you can't cast sacrifice/resurrect/any buff on them

Best unit in the game is simply the VAMPIRE. Life sucking is best ability in the game, and if there was "counterstrike" spell like in HoM&M series they would be simply indestructible.

Early game:

Griffins (great initiative, speed, flight, unlimited retaliation, good hit points)
Royal Snakes (tough, hit hard, no retailiation, two-hex range strike)
Inquisitors (two great abilities - rage, resurrection)
Evil Beholders (good ranged attack, hypnotize)
Dwarven Cannoneers (ranged attack does extra damage to structures)

Once I can get them, I'll swap out the snakes for Orc Shamans (totem, tough melee unit), keeping the snakes in reserve, so I can swap them back in at need.

Later on I try to swap the Dwarven Cannoneers for Elves or Hunters. And I'll often swap the Griffins for Horsemen. I haven't made it any further, so I can't comment on late game units.

If you want to go with undead, I recommend Skeleton Archers (if you don't mind taking lots of losses before you have Time Back), and Vampires (especially Ancient Vampires). Inquisitors don't mind undead, but unfortunately, most of the other good ranged units do, so you'll need Tolerance to add in a good mix of ranged units.

I tend to find most Level 5 units are overpriced for what they give - giants are fun, but at 1,600 leadership each, each one costs the same as 26 royal snakes. Ent are nice, but way too slow. Same with Royal Thorns - a 1 Speed is hard to live with.

hello all.
My Fav. army is Polar bear (good health and good attacking) coz we can hire a lot of them.
Inquisitor.(resurection)
Griffin (good health and can split)
but army that i want is Horse man. i can't find them. I've already in level 11 and in the middle of the quest with Dwarve.

they sell the horseman as you described it right next to greenwort castle. Unfortunately its defended heavily and not worth losing troops to get it.

The troops guarding the tent, however, can be bypassed. Just lure them out and get the troops.

Greetings all, and like ye, this game's music and play are awesome!

Faverite troops, eh?
-->early game (for Warrior,Pally, and Mage)
If ye can get, Royal Snakes, Polar Bears (most likely, Anceint Bears)
-->mid part (depends on the class I suppose)
for me it was the Orc Shammans (dancing Axe and the totems to
distract - rule) the elven archers(both kinds) were very nice.
-->mid to late, since I played warrior, I got the demon wife, bought all the
demon troops i can (later they be vendors thet sell them outside of
Demonis) then transfered them to garrisons i had quik access to.

Now to answer the question: Demons, Demoness, and Archdemons are my favorite Troops, the dragons are very good but well, they are hard to replace and get very expensive (demons wernt a problem). This is what I have for the warrior. Xeona (Wife, +1 demon moral and she's really hot!;)), x2 Marshal's Baton, Isshara's Whip, Dragon Cloak, Demetrius[cl3], Miner's Helmet, and Anga's Ruby Ring.

The gear made them very mean, Archdemon teleport and smash rules, Demons ability to summon more, and demoness's talent to 'switch units places' fun. This set up was fun, I beleive the Kids i had were Adamus(+20% Atk), John(+10 rage), Homer(+3 Atk), and Emmanuel(+20% rage)

My army consisted of Demoness, Demons, Archdemons, Black Dragons, Red Dragons, reserve (demoness's - AI hates them with a passion, Black Dragons, these two to replenish what i loose since rez doesnt work with blakies)

Anyway, this set up very fun!

Where can I find hireable Black Dragons? I've only found 2 eggs....

Also, where can I hire Arch Devils?

In the Land of the Dead, you will often find a bunch up in the mountains. Also, in the Magic Valley in Ellinia, the mage hiding behind the magic range will sometimes have some.

I'm just starting to experiment with Demons. I added some demonesses, but for some reason my inquisitors weren't able to resurrect them! Is this supposed to be the case? Is resurrect not supposed to work on them? If this is the case, are they worth getting, with all the morale hits and all?

In the beginning of the game I went for the usual strategy with 2 melee and 3 ranged units (playing as a Paladin) - Royal snakes + bears and inquisitors, archmages and archers behind them.

In the mid-game, I started to get a bit more range-oriented. Both types of elf archers, human Archers, Skeleton Archers and some horsemen to tank (rather poor tank, should have taken ents).

Now in the late game, I keep Knights, Demons and Arch demons as melee units and 4 types of archers. This allows for a lot of flexibility - from 4 ranged + a tank to 3 melee + 2 archers. Lets see how the final battle will go.

EDIT: As for the last battle, close-combat troops are essential. Knights with sweep are a battle-winner, especially if you manage to get them surrounded by dragons. Ogres hit like hell (gift is very useful here), and Demons give extra diversion. In my game I found ONLY 13 Archdemons... Pitiful. I still used skellies though. A full troop of skels with dragon arrows drops a troop of black dragons in 1 hit. They will also draw the attention of other dragons to them for 1-2 rounds, which is rather cool.

I hate that hypnosis spell Haas casts, though.

Resurrection doesn't work with Demons

Are they worth getting? Demons are great - lots of attack&defence, 3 speed, always retaliate (perfect combo with Reaper's Timeback). Imps - no retaliation and 2 charges of fire ball. Cerberuses - 3 head attack (in HoM&M they also had no retaliation, it's a pity). I didn't like Demonesses though, but fighting against them is annoying (Magic Shackles are essential)

I killed Baal and still cannot recruit Archdemons. Where do I find them?

Also, isn't the game pretty much over once you get Archdemons?

Does Sacrifice work on them?

I found them only in Baal's castle, after beating him. There were only 13 and that was all. I did a pretty thorough search of Demonis, the castles (I married Xeona, still nothing) and the buildings, as well as the labyrinth and the orcs' lands. That was it.

Maybe we're just unlucky. However, Archdemons aren't that wickedly powerful. You should keep them in reserve and use them only vs. dragons. Haas has high level hypnosis and he can possess pretty much any units that isn't mind immune.

Resurrection doesn't work on ALL Demons. However, Sacrifice still does. This way I managed to rise 90 Demons from 2 bought in tavern in Arlania ;)

Yes, I also used sacrifice to grow some nice big demon stacks. What do you mean it doesn't work on "ALL demons"? Does it work on some? If so, which ones? Or are you saying it doesn't work on any demon?

Hmmm, people keep saying that you can recruit them at Baal's castle, but I have not been able to find them. It's funny how you can only recruit 13 of them, however. It must be related to the fact that they have 666 hit points! :)

Thanks for the information on the Haas. I will definitely keep in mind.

Wow, this thread has suddenly become VERY popular. I just gotta put my two cents in.

First, black dragons are ALWAYS to be found in the land of the dead, not too far from Karador's castle, amongst all the ridges an so on. Red dragons are also available in the same area, though not the same building, and green dragons are available in a shop only accessible from the water in the land of a thousand rivers.

As for arch-demons, I don't believe there is any garunteed location for hiring them. You'll have to check everywhere in demonis, and if you have no luck there, there is a small chance that you might find them in Haas' labyrinth. I know that i have seen demon-aligned shops there, and you might get lucky.

Final thing, Haas has a lot of spells he is fond of using, not just hypnosis (in fact, in three completed games, I have never seen him cast it). In my experience, he mostly casts armageddon, sheep and pygmy, the latter two usually on whatever stack you need the most.

One unit I really like that hasn't been mentioned are cyclops. They have high leadership and slow, but with an artifact that gives my slowest unit +1 to speed they are great. I walk them out into the middle of combat and because of their high damage resistance I very, very rarely lose one.

They are hard to find so I have to get more with sacrifice, but that is the only problem with them.

Their initiative is also TERRIBLE, meaning they pretty much always go last. That's why I don't use them, seeing as my strategy is that a dead enemy can't do any damage, so if you kill them fast you don't need to worry very much amount the damage they deal you.

Best Units:

King Snakes
Dryads
Orc Shaman
Necromancer
Ancient Ghosts - endless reserves :cool:
Seketon Archers

Worst units:
Zombies
Peasants
Plants
Archmage - wtf? Lvl 4?
Hyenas

Dragons: Red Dragon

My favorite unit is Peasants. They rulz!
Red dragon ^^

In my recent game (and so far only, starting again now) I didn't GET demons. There was no huts selling the (high level melee) demons. :S Other than that they seem kind of decent. However, favourite troops vary a lot; usually there's a combination.

1: Inquisitor. You need the inquisition ability so you can turn regular priests into inquisitors to use them all game. Three things to note:
Its resurrection ability is different from the spell. They won't resurrect demons, BUT they will resurrect level 5 creatures. Including red dragons (but not black as they're immune to magic.).
Gift, a relatively common order spell, will at level 1 recharge the resurrection ability and you'll get that WAY earlier than resurrect, I figure, especially resurrect level 3 (if ever).
Best for warriors that does not have vast intellect to power up their own resurrection spells.

2: Horsemen are good. Knights are stronger, sort of, BUT too slow.

3: Demonesses has EXTREMELY powerful abilities.

Horsemen and inquisitors are the only units I've stuck with throughout the game.

Tactical use:
1: Army of horsemen and demonesses + whatever.
2: Create phantom copy of horsemen.
3: Use the demoness' swap places so the phantom copies trade places with an enemy support / ranged unit you need to kill.
4: Zerg the ranged unit while your enemy keeps busy with the phantom menace.
5: Until phantoms are gone, hit and run / ranged bombardment.

Kngihts can work better than horsemen - a unit that WILL be swamped will have plenty of use for the circle attack - but I find knights too slow to be any real use.

Early on I really liked vampires. Eventually, though, they didn't have the stamina, strength, or numbers, to remain competitive.

The problem is, that you spend both Inquisitior turn and your own spell. Plus, to have spell power comparable to the one from spell book, you'll need at least level 20. At some point they are not worth it. And if you're not paladin they're hard to get (limited numbers)Horseman have no attractive abilities (no retaliation, furious, life drain, etc.). They are solid but nothing more. Knights are slow ase you said, no running = no use.
Swap works only with one unit, so if enemy has like 5 or more ranged it won't make any difference. And you could spend this turn on making real damage with ranged unit.
It's true, but life drain compensates all these drawbacks. Just make sure they don't take beating from 4 enemy units at a time. Plus they're fast, good initiative, no retaliation AND they benefit from some special features: zombie form Rina (+1 speed and initiative) Dark Commader skill (+ 7 attack and +2 initiative). I use vampires and have lost very small number through the whole game (<10)

Ive played through this game twice once with mage on normal difficulty and once with warrior in hard mode.

So far my conclusions are:
bears are nice, they have a nice damage output, crit often and dont die that easy, decent tanks imho
royal snakes, probably the best unit overall works wonders with the slow spell due to their no retaliation attack
necros high initiative, a nice basic attack and decent talents makes them prolly the best caster in the game
sea dogs great unit for a while but they loose their edge later, replaced them with cerberuses, more durable, good speed and a lovely basic attack (use them with timeback)

Where exactly ? I sailed around the coast and islands there couln't find it. Found pirate hut, lighthouse and elven underground with many emerald dr but enemies, no any dwelling. Altough i have them (because i sneaked to demonis earlier and had them available after doing quest with stealing dragon egg from ultrax) and can use sacrifice to get more, would be nice to buy some if they are available nearby instead of playing with sacrifice ( already have to do that much with royal snakes due to lack of any places to buy more, and i had no inquisitors untill i beat Emenem, while there was only like 20 of them so not much, also got sacrifice just here in grey wastelands)


And about the topic : I didnt finsh game yet so havent tested all but so far my favourite setup is :
royal snakes - thats obvious
emerald dragons - mana, tank
giant - even better tank than emerald ;p and with emerald positive morale and alle barrel doing nice damage too
cannoneers - alle barrel + telescopic sight
shamans - love distract with totems and dancing axe heal

i am also considering to change cannoneers and gianst to elves + hunters, which are better cannoneers or elves/hunters?

To get to the green dragon shop, enter 1000 rivers via magic valley in your boat, go to the second place where you can land on the mainland. There should be a beach with a path that turns generally right. Follow it, the shop is at the end of the path. I hope that's clear enough.

As for elves/hunters and cannoneers, hunters are far better than them whereas elves are about the same or slightly worse. The big difference is the no range penalty and the ability to use dragon arrows. Having no giants in your army will also make your green dragons stronger since their morale will go back to normal instead of being at -2 (so they will gain back the 20% attack and defense that they lost as well as getting a critical twice as often).

Was quite clear , thanks got it and there are 37 of them there :)

Now after 2nd game i have a better overview on units and so my favourites :

As for dragon emerald definetly
As for units for mid-late game :
Emerald again :D
Skell archer
Demon
Royal snake
Hunter
Sprite
Like fairy
Shaman
Inquisitor
For early game i like mostly
Royal snake
Inqi (if avalaible)
griphon
archmage
cannoner
ancient/polar bear

The best unit depends on the level difficulty and the monster you are fighing the most (like for instance in the labirynth = mostly dragons etc)

So if I know that I will encounter dragons I go skeleton archers+dragon arrows (pure ownage), or if I know I will encounter mostly melee monster I go ranged etc etc.

But in overall the best unit in the game (the most used) is the swordsman if we look at the % of the battles.

The stronges I would say:

for a warrior: early-game = swordsman, skeleton archers (in late game and provided with dragon arrows and the +initiative talent, my skeleton archers did like 20k-30k damage each turn in mid game, late game the damage was much more around 40k),
for a mage: shamman
for a palladin: early game = royal snake, mid-end game = griffin

Also I would like to note the best unit is YOUR choice, its your playing style, if you want to go pure tank+archers to do the damage then your units are different, if you want to go all melee the units are different also (like for instance griffins+flying units with no retaliation supported by 1-2 stacks of ranged units etc) = all depends on your playing style.

Personaly what I can say is that dragons are really bad (for a warrior and a paladin, for a mage a bit better) cause a warrior and a palladin will 100% get +initiative in the 1st round.

Very cool unit selected choice. There's only one I don't like it's Archmage, but I should try use it more, the 50% damage reduction shouldn't be that bad. Also it's strange that there isn't Dryad, Demoness, Ancient Vampire, Ghost, Cursed Ghost, Elf.

Also if Archers can get a nice bonus that cannot get other range units you could not have items for that or not have slot available for it. That's when Cyclop, Evil Beholder, Royal Thorn and Hunter Thorn can be very good alternative of range units.

And that's the core point, favorite units are highly linked to items you have and can wear. Also some units are dependent of the availability of some spells, the current wife can influence preferred units and army composition too (more or less range units). To complete Amidamaru86 comment about army choice and preferred units, I suspect that in general the no range unit army is under evaluated and not much looked at. I could be wrong objectively but that's still an interesting possibility that open some different tactical options make worth more some units like Knight and Sea Dog.

For all those reasons I add those units to your list (minus Archmage):

• Dryad: That's almost cheating to use those particularly when using the Anga's Ruby. For sure they are very weak fighters so during a fight where sleep is no use they are a penalty but that's rare and their no retaliation plus summon skill are quite good points when combined with the great haste and high initiative that gives the ring.
• Demoness: Three special skills and all are excellent, very interesting choice to increase tactical choices and even better with the Anga's Ruby that gives them a high mobility. And they become even very good fighter units with the Demetrius sword giving -20% Leadership cost to demon troops.
• Ancient Vampire: Just excellent units as bat, make worth invest in Dark Commander and Tolerance skills. The beauty of the thing is that you can get some quite soon in game so if you get Sacrifice soon enough they are then excellent choice since the first part of the game and worth it until end game.
• Ghosts: Not easy to manage but excellent unit during the beginning. Coupled with Cursed Ghost and wife Rina as zombie they are an excellent choice. But they are too weak for mid game. I'm not sure that is true in higher difficulty level then they are probably too tough to use.
• Cursed Ghost: Not easy to manage but excellent unit during the beginning. Coupled with Ghost and wife Rina as zombie they are an excellent choice. Even in mid game they continue be good but you'll need have invest in Dark Commander skill, Tolerance and/or have Rina wife as zombie. In later game they become useless because too tough to manage. I'm not sure that is true in higher difficulty level then they are probably too tough to use.
• Sea Dog: Haste and sometimes teleport can increase a lot their efficiency. With wife Rina as human, plus some other items they can be very powerful units and could worth alone the use of those items. For sure Mirabella is an excellent wife alternative too but not as good because their special attack that you have every two turns requires the maximum mobility.
• Knight with Circle Attack: They require most often spells like teleport, haste, or Demoness swap. Then teleport and a circle attack can be devastating and not necessary only during the first turn. They are also an excellent dragon lure or good again fast army. They make worth to max Iron Fist.
• Giant: Too bad Green Dragon hate them but you can get them sooner than dragons and if you get and can wear the ogre boots then that's a huge unit. Haste can help a lot with those but without the Ogre boots I don't like them much.
• Lake Dragonfly: They can be excellent tactical choice either to put the first attack and eventually cast invisible on them. But even better is have other units like griffin or ghost attract the attention first, and then use them at end of turn as a tactical blow followed next turn by another blow. Quote they have the second best ratio Leadership/damages after Sprite but are quite cheaper than Sprite. Before to get Sprite if you get any or when magical damages worth less than physical they are perhaps an excellent choice for mid game. Also one non random item add +1 damage with such bonus for mass troops like those this can have a huge effect. But I haven't yet tried them after the beginning.
• Fire Dragonfly: Nice alternative to Lake Dragonfly, their special skill is great. I never used them in mid game nor late game but I wonder what you can do with those. Their fire resistance can be a plus then.
• Wolf: During the very beginning with their special skill those can be a nice bonus when fighting some human units.
• Werewolf Elf: During the beginning their wolf cry can be a nice bonus when fighting some human units. They can be more useful than wolf because of their much better initiative or they can even be used with wolf.
• Evil Beholder: Their ability to make an opponent unit lost a turn can be very handy. I didn't find them as good after the beginning, but I didn't tried them a lot during mid and later game.
• Elf: Their special attack that doesn't have Hunter make them quite worthy. With Onslaught skill plus their level 3 instead of 4 for hunter they are for me a better choice than Hunter.
• Cyclop: Because they are an excellent close range fighter that cannot be other range units. Sometimes you get some soon enough to have them be the best long range. After beginning and beginning of mid game they are harder to use. Quote also they are excellent against undead and fire.
• Royal Thorn: If you get some soon enough in the game with Sacrifice Spell to increase the stack size and replace dead. But quite soon they become useless because of their too low initiative. Excellent in combination with ghosts that will rush and attract the attention.
• Hunter Thorn: Until you get items you can wear and that favor mechanical range units or Archers, those are an excellent range unit for the beginning, Priest, Archer, Archmage, even Archer Skeleton so soon in game don't match them not too mention their special skill and their speed. But quite soon they become useless because of their too low initiative. Excellent in combination with ghosts that will rush and attract the attention.

I wonder why but I never tried a lot those following units, I suspect they could worth a lot: Devilfish, Hyena, Black Knight, Imp, Scoffer Imp, Cerberus, Orc units (catapult seems to be an excellent archer alternative).

And the list of units I don't like at all for good or bad reason:

• Barbarian and Berserker: Not controlling a unit don't worth it.
• All human units but Knight, Horseman, Inquisitor. I should try more Archmage.
• Pirate, Zombie, Decaying Zombie, Skeleton: Too slow, no good skill.
• Spiders even with the frog wife, poison is so useless and those don't get as much bonuses from items than snakes.
• Bone Dragon: Too weak for the Leadership cost.
• Black Dragon: Too high Leadership cost, magic immunity is too restrictive it should be only negative magic immunity.
• Snakes but Royal, except if you use the frog wife and a special Snake army.

Its favourute unit, not to post oall units or half of them ~~ i disagree on few points.Cyclops are crappy for me,also knight with circle atttack is nothing compared to demon, Elves arent butter than hunter playd with them both. Wolf annoying but not realy usefull, same for werewof

I don't think it's that sample:

• The first point is that tactical+ogre boot can make giant quite huge, much better fighter than Green dragon.
• The second point is I know everybody prefer get more runes than the shield dwarf reward for the map. But well what's 10 runes of each, perhaps 2 more skills or even 3 but not much more. On other hand elf don't have any Leadership bonus that dwarf can have ie -30% Leadership that means in fact 42% more Leadership than elves, that is huge. Do you really think that cannot worth the morale bonus of a full elf army and the Green Dragon use?
• The third point is that Dragon Arrow is an option, there's many more spells to use during first turn so when you choose use another spell, the comparison change a lot:
  • For a comparison Hunter vs Cannoner, the special attack of Cannoner and Tactical placing it closer to enemy give them a much better first attack. And the 42% Leadership bonus make the difference huge.
  • And when compared to Elf they have a first attack relatively even and the 42% Leadership bonus make the difference huge.
• The fourth point is that full elf army is a point giving more morale bonus but then bye bye to more choices like Green Dragon. That's an interesting option but not the single good option, too restricted.

i prefer royal snakes, ingi's, shamans, emeralds, evil beholders:)

Lol no problem you disagree, now my heart is large and I definitely enjoyed all those units at some point of the game or in some game.

You want debate a little about units? Ok fine:

• About elf and hunter that you use both see previous post and answer it.
• About wolf and werewolf it's just during the beginning and against army with human units. Yes you can get werewolf quite soon unlike elf and hunter. you spite a little fast on invalidating a large size of enemy army, I'm not sure this require more argument you should explain why that suck.
• Ok Demon and Griffin, those are a clear game unbalance but do you want compare those to some that you quote like Royal Snake, ancient/polar bear? It seems you use army with almost only range units, you should try more combination and even try no range unit. One great point of this game is diversity, efficiency isn't all when it's about having fun.
• Demon is great but has also many disadvantage:
  • You cannot resurrect them and can with Knight and resurrect level 3, sacrifice is far to be as efficient.
  • Demon is to be used to get plenty hit and with a time back alas their level 4 is quite a penalty for that.
  • With knights you keep Time Back for another unit, typically Sprite or Lake Fairy. And their skill allow very often to be used to hit 2 or 3 enemy, sometimes more and choose hit the weakest enemy. Demon need to be hit to do that.
  • Griffin can be a nice alternate to demon because level 3, because more available so you could keep Time Back for another unit.
  • Demon require you learn a skill to be compatible with non demon units.

EDIT: Lol I even forgot quote Archidemon in my favorite list, arg those are dam great with their teleport adding nice tactical possibilites. And with the -20% Leadership bonus they become almost as good fighter than Giant with Ogre boot and -30 Leadership bonus.

No i am not ranged based i am used do have 2 ranged in my army, and i compared knight to demon because similiar role, teleport and hit many units

It's impossible to use any unit like you can use Griffin or Demons. Demons has also a nice talent with its little summon. Sure you cannot use a knight like a Demon or Griffin. Teleport and hit many units, yes that's a possibility with Knight and Demon but with Demon it's more interesting to do it at beginning of the turn when for a knight it's quite interesting to wait the end. Demon can be the center of the tactic and Knight can't. For killing dragons Knight is quite good.

Anyway I don't see the point, just no unit can be compared well to Griffin and Demon. That doesn't change that Knight has a very special attack quite unique and interesting but in term of pure strength there is better.